Numerous computer programs have been developed that permit a user to operate the program interactively. Such programs are particularly well suited for educational, instructional and amusement purposes. The effectiveness of such programs can be greatly enhanced by providing sound effects and/or voice messages that are correlated with the visual information presented on the computer screen. It is well known that sound effects and voice messages can be synthesized from digitized data. However, the amount of audio information that can be presented is often severely limited by the amount of memory available. In this regard, it requires approximately 4 kilobytes of memory to store 1 second of audio information to obtain acceptable sound quality. Most personal computer systems, therefore, are capable of storing only a limited amount of audio information.
Systems for synthesizing voice and other audio messages are widely known. Systems for providing a telephonic audio interface are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,855 issued to Sakai; U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,438 issued to Hughes; U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,651 issued to Evans, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,877 issued to Dorsey, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,777 issued to Szeto; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,583 issued to Groner, et al.
Such telephonic audio interface systems are often employed to provide an interface between a host computer and a user who desires to exchange information with the host system by means of a telephone. A common application for such a system is in the consumer banking industry. Typically, systems of this type provide a synthesized message in response to a user input. However, they do not provide messages that are correlated with the operation of an application program being run on the user's own computer.
As disclosed herein, the present invention provides a system whereby audio messages corresponding to visual information presented by a computer program are retrieved from a host computer and made audible to the local user such that it appears to the user as if the audio messages are being generated directly by the user's own computer.